Small typing project update

 I've been working on the typing project and have discovered a few things. One good, two not so good, and one that's neither good nor bad, just is. 

First, the good: I no longer have to split my NASCAR cards up into four separate systems! In 2009, I typed my entire NASCAR collection into Excel, basically the foundation of the project I'm doing now. I also scanned all the cards, front only, in 2009 and 10. I since decided to rescan them since the early scans were not very good, mostly due to lack of knowledge that I had not yet acquired, also due to a lack of Photoscape to fix the scans. Well, since I've been doing the scanning and typing process, I've had to split them up four ways: 1. Typed but not scanned in full. 2. Typed and scanned in full 3. Scanned in full but not typed and 4. Neither scanned nor typed. It was really confusing at times and I know I made mistakes. I'm pretty sure when I finish typing and sort them by set I'll find some that ended up getting typed twice. I have already found and corrected a couple instances of that already. Hopefully I didn't skip over any thinking they were already typed...I'll find out when I go through my paper listing to enter the dates and essentially proof read the typing. Now, going forward, I will just have to keep them separated in two ways: Scanned or not scanned. Everything will be typed. Much easier. I always knew this was the most complex part of my collection and this will make things much easier than it has been for the last dozen years. As a bonus, most of my NASCAR collection has already been typed. 

Now the not so good: I discovered that Excel isn't smart enough to put them in proper order when sorted, IF the numbers are not numerical. For instance I entered in the 1996-97 Collector's Choice Mini-Cards, which are numbered M1 through M180. If I just entered them like that, which the vast majority of the collection has been typed exactly as it appears on the card, it sorts them badly. M180 would be placed AFTER M1 but BEFORE M2. I realize I have to use the same format I use to keep the scans in order on Fotki, adding in 0s to make it sort properly. M2 would have to be listed as M002, M22 as M022, etc. This is frustrating because I typed in over 100,000 cards over the past 10 years before I realized this, meaning I have to re-do a LOT of stuff. Not looking forward to that, although it's certainly not hard to do...just frustrating that I have to do it. I'm not going to stop and tackle it now. I'll work on that when I'm done, although I am doing it going forward. 

Another annoying thing I ran into is caused by the fact that I "upgraded" the format a few years ago. I originally typed everything into one box (if you've ever used Excel, you know what I mean). I then decided it would be easier to sort things if each bit of information had it's own box, so I used the Text to columns feature break everything up. And it worked good, but not great. The biggest problem for most of the cards is that it left a space at the end of every set name. It didn't do that to the number boxes so I don't know why it did it to the set name boxes, but it did. The new cards I've typed in since then, they don't have the space. So now when I sort them, it puts the new one ahead of the old ones because it thinks they are different. So to fix it I've got to go in and copy and paste the correct, spaceless name, overwriting the old, space at the end name. Again, it's not hard, but frustrating. It's quick enough to fix - I fixed all the NASCAR base sets on Sunday while watching the race, and some of the inserts (some 34,000 cards)- but fixing everything, including all the inserts, will likely take years before I notice and fix them. Again, frustrating. 

The one thing I noticed that's neither good nor bad, just is: The fonts are noticeably different throughout the project. I have been working on this same file with at least 4 different computers, maybe 5, (I don't remember how many laptops I've had) and the font/font size varies for all of them. The fonts are a mix of Calibri 10 through 12 and Arial 11 and 12. It's a little jarring, and I'm converting them all to Arial 12, which is what I think looks the best to me...Arial was the font on my original and still favorite computer, and I've upped the size a bit both for looks and to make it easier to read, bad eyesight you know. Eventually I'll probably forget that they used to vary, so when I click on the typing project tag here on Cardboard History, this post will remind me. Getting back used to the Arial is a little strange...the current computer default was to Calibri 10 so for the past 3 and a half years I've been mostly looking at that. In the long run I'll be happier with the Arial 12 though. 

Thanks for reading, I realize this is not very interesting to anyone but me. The fact that I'm publishing it as I finish at at 1:40 in the morning should be a giveaway on how much I think anyone will care, but  have an idea for a picture themed post pulling from my archives that I need to get written, maybe that will be the next post. However, it won't be card related, but rather a long ago adventure.